Like I said, a much simplified version of Scythe. The map is a hex grid divided into 6 colored regions, with a castle in the center and portals scattered around. Each player has two “Seeker” pawns they’re moving around the map, gathering up apples and gems and finding quest markers to pick up. Each player has a base camp placed at one of the map edges, where their Seekers start. Gems, apples, and quest markers are scattered around the map. The board has a track showing how much Friendship and how many pies each player has at the moment.
The goal of the game is to complete 4 of the 8 possible goals:
Have 8+ Friendship
Have 8+ pies
Have 2 upgrades
Have 3+ spell cards
Finish 2+ quests
Deliver 4 gems to the castle
Deliver 4 apples to the castle
Win a fight
When a player finishes a goal, they put a trophy marker of their color on the goal’s space on the board. A player may only claim one goal on their turn except during the endgame. Each player may claim each goal once, and any number of players may claim the same goal. A player can’t claim any goals if their Friendship score is below 3. Friendship is magic, and all that.
Players take one action per turn, and must always take a different action than the last one they picked. Each player has an action board with 6 possible actions they can take:
Move both of their Seekers. A Seeker can move two hexes if they’re not carrying anything, or one hex if they’re carrying any number of gems and apples. A player may move from a portal space to any other portal space or to the castle in the middle (but only if they’re making a delivery).
Seek gems, apples, and quests. There are 2 different Seek actions. In each one, the player rolls 4 dice that will tell them which region they must place apples, gems, and quest markers. Players get to choose where in the region to place the new things. Apples and gems may be placed with Seekers; putting them with other players’ Seekers earns Friendship. Quest markers cannot be placed with Seekers.
Make stuff. There are 3 different Make actions. Players can spend apples to increase their pie supply, spend gems to draw a spell card, or spend an apple and a gem to choose an upgrade card. Upgrade cards go on top of either the Move or Make spots on the action board to improve those capabilities.
Gems and apples stay on the map, even when Seekers pick them up. When a Seeker moves, they can carry gems and apples with them from the space where they started to the space where they end up. Gems and apples are needed for Make actions, quests, and deliveries to the castle. When a Seeker takes 4 gems or 4 apples to the castle, they earn the appropriate delivery goal and are returned to their base camp.
When a Seeker moves into a space with a quest marker, they draw a quest card, read it, and choose one of the three options to resolve it. Options may cost resources, and players can’t choose them if they can’t pay the cost, except for Friendship which stays at zero if it would go below zero. Gems and apples paid for a quest may come from either of a player’s Seekers. Choices may give gems or apples, which get placed with either of the player’s Seekers. Quest cards have a “no thanks” option which sends the card to the bottom of the deck without any cost but without resolving the card. Players keep cards that they resolve, and if it’s their second resolved quest they may earn the “2+ quests” goal immediately.
If a Seeker moves into another player’s Seeker, they start a pie fight. The attacker loses one Friendship right away. Each player gets a dial that lets them wager pies to throw in the fight, secretly choosing any number from zero to the number of pies they have on the pie track. Each player may also choose one of their spell cards to add extra “hidden” pies to the fight. Both players reveal their wager and cards at the same time. Whomever has more total pies in the fight wins, with ties going to the attacker. The winner stays in the space and earns the “win a fight” goal if they haven’t already done so; the loser gets moved back to their base camp, leaving behind any apples and gems they had, but they get their choice of a free spell or two pies, and they can choose any action on their next turn.
When one player claims their 4th goal, every other player gets one final turn to claim as many goals as they can, then the game ends. The winner is decided by most goals claimed, then most Friendship, then most gems & apples held by Seekers.
Scythe is a sort of blend of worker placement game and “soft” wargame. The main board is a map of large hexes, most of which produce a resource. Each player has workers which harvest resources from hexes; military units (giant robots) which carry workers and resources swiftly around the map and protect them from other players; and a hero who can pick up encounter cards and pick fights.
There’s a list of goals all players are trying to meet - target amounts of resources, territory control, worker populations, etc, and the object of the game is to accomplish these goals by using resources they gain. When a player completes a goal they mark that goal with one of their star tokens (any number of players may complete the same goals, but each player may only meet each goal once). The game ends when any player completes their 6th goal; then there’s final scoring based on territory control, goals finished, and wealth collected.
Turns are simple and go quickly - a player’s basic actions are to move their units, harvest resources from hexes with workers, build up their military strength, and trade resources for other resources from the bank. Each basic action has a secondary option that allows constructing buildings, deploying units, and upgrading capabilities. One caveat is that you can’t perform the same action twice in a row.
Combat happens when one player’s military unit moves into another player’s military. Combat is handled similar to the Dune board game, if you’ve ever played that; both players secretly wager any amount of their built-up military strength resource, add cards for bonus strength, and then show each other their total strength (wager + card value) at the same time. Whomever has the higher strength stays to hold the territory, and the losing units are sent back to their base, never destroyed. Combat is rarely necessary; it’s usually enough to just put units in place to discourage attack, and players are encouraged to negotiate and trade to get what they want from each other without fighting.
A few other nuances:
Different player factions have different special abilities, mostly to do with movement.
Upgrading involves a clever mechanic of picking up an upgrade token to reveal an added benefit for one action and using that same token to cover up part of the cost of an action, not necessarily the same one.
Each player only starts with one robot and can only build 4 more, but each one deployed uncovers a new capability that applies to all the player’s military units - the player chooses which one when they deploy the robot.
Some hexes start the game with encounter tokens; the first hero unit who enters that hex gets to read an encounter card and choose one of three outcomes.
That’s the core of the original Scythe, and I expect most of it to translate to My Little Scythe, maybe simplified a bit for younger kids to understand and enjoy.
Funny coincidence (and much like dr. Mobius I consider that word a profanity).
In Fallout 4 SCYTHE was also a program to build landmines at Wilson Atomatoys, a company that made toy ponies.
Like I said, a much simplified version of Scythe. The map is a hex grid divided into 6 colored regions, with a castle in the center and portals scattered around. Each player has two “Seeker” pawns they’re moving around the map, gathering up apples and gems and finding quest markers to pick up. Each player has a base camp placed at one of the map edges, where their Seekers start. Gems, apples, and quest markers are scattered around the map. The board has a track showing how much Friendship and how many pies each player has at the moment.
The goal of the game is to complete 4 of the 8 possible goals:
When a player finishes a goal, they put a trophy marker of their color on the goal’s space on the board. A player may only claim one goal on their turn except during the endgame. Each player may claim each goal once, and any number of players may claim the same goal. A player can’t claim any goals if their Friendship score is below 3. Friendship is magic, and all that.
Players take one action per turn, and must always take a different action than the last one they picked. Each player has an action board with 6 possible actions they can take:
Gems and apples stay on the map, even when Seekers pick them up. When a Seeker moves, they can carry gems and apples with them from the space where they started to the space where they end up. Gems and apples are needed for Make actions, quests, and deliveries to the castle. When a Seeker takes 4 gems or 4 apples to the castle, they earn the appropriate delivery goal and are returned to their base camp.
When a Seeker moves into a space with a quest marker, they draw a quest card, read it, and choose one of the three options to resolve it. Options may cost resources, and players can’t choose them if they can’t pay the cost, except for Friendship which stays at zero if it would go below zero. Gems and apples paid for a quest may come from either of a player’s Seekers. Choices may give gems or apples, which get placed with either of the player’s Seekers. Quest cards have a “no thanks” option which sends the card to the bottom of the deck without any cost but without resolving the card. Players keep cards that they resolve, and if it’s their second resolved quest they may earn the “2+ quests” goal immediately.
If a Seeker moves into another player’s Seeker, they start a pie fight. The attacker loses one Friendship right away. Each player gets a dial that lets them wager pies to throw in the fight, secretly choosing any number from zero to the number of pies they have on the pie track. Each player may also choose one of their spell cards to add extra “hidden” pies to the fight. Both players reveal their wager and cards at the same time. Whomever has more total pies in the fight wins, with ties going to the attacker. The winner stays in the space and earns the “win a fight” goal if they haven’t already done so; the loser gets moved back to their base camp, leaving behind any apples and gems they had, but they get their choice of a free spell or two pies, and they can choose any action on their next turn.
When one player claims their 4th goal, every other player gets one final turn to claim as many goals as they can, then the game ends. The winner is decided by most goals claimed, then most Friendship, then most gems & apples held by Seekers.
Scythe is a sort of blend of worker placement game and “soft” wargame. The main board is a map of large hexes, most of which produce a resource. Each player has workers which harvest resources from hexes; military units (giant robots) which carry workers and resources swiftly around the map and protect them from other players; and a hero who can pick up encounter cards and pick fights.
There’s a list of goals all players are trying to meet - target amounts of resources, territory control, worker populations, etc, and the object of the game is to accomplish these goals by using resources they gain. When a player completes a goal they mark that goal with one of their star tokens (any number of players may complete the same goals, but each player may only meet each goal once). The game ends when any player completes their 6th goal; then there’s final scoring based on territory control, goals finished, and wealth collected.
Turns are simple and go quickly - a player’s basic actions are to move their units, harvest resources from hexes with workers, build up their military strength, and trade resources for other resources from the bank. Each basic action has a secondary option that allows constructing buildings, deploying units, and upgrading capabilities. One caveat is that you can’t perform the same action twice in a row.
Combat happens when one player’s military unit moves into another player’s military. Combat is handled similar to the Dune board game, if you’ve ever played that; both players secretly wager any amount of their built-up military strength resource, add cards for bonus strength, and then show each other their total strength (wager + card value) at the same time. Whomever has the higher strength stays to hold the territory, and the losing units are sent back to their base, never destroyed. Combat is rarely necessary; it’s usually enough to just put units in place to discourage attack, and players are encouraged to negotiate and trade to get what they want from each other without fighting.
A few other nuances:
Different player factions have different special abilities, mostly to do with movement.
Upgrading involves a clever mechanic of picking up an upgrade token to reveal an added benefit for one action and using that same token to cover up part of the cost of an action, not necessarily the same one.
Each player only starts with one robot and can only build 4 more, but each one deployed uncovers a new capability that applies to all the player’s military units - the player chooses which one when they deploy the robot.
Some hexes start the game with encounter tokens; the first hero unit who enters that hex gets to read an encounter card and choose one of three outcomes.
That’s the core of the original Scythe, and I expect most of it to translate to My Little Scythe, maybe simplified a bit for younger kids to understand and enjoy.
Edited
It looks like a strategy game set in world war 1 with mechs and other high-tech things thrown into the mix.
In Fallout 4 SCYTHE was also a program to build landmines at Wilson Atomatoys, a company that made toy ponies.
What is Scythe as a board game?
I might have answers, or can try to get them. What’s up?